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watch Here Rests My Home - A short film with great contrasts between the visuals and sounds

I loved: The mood and tone. The acting. The old man is stellar!! The footage is fantastic too.
I liked: The pacing it felt like a slow progression into the grave, like a grandfather taking a long time to tell you a story. It had emotion.
I would change: The MUSIC!!! It completely threw me out of the experience. Watching the film on mute was a definite improvement. I didn't understand the decision to have modern electric guitars and drum beats when we're slowly watching an old man put himself into a grave.
Great work though overall!
-Matt
http://www.voiceofthevespers.com
 
I found the choice of music brought the film to entire different level, the unconventional contrast between the image and the sound gave an unexpected thrill and pace to the film.

This being said I understand how it could be confusing to some people, especially if they don't like distorting sounds. But even if we remove the sound, this film is still fantastic!
 
As a cinematography exercise with added music, your short is good. As an actual film though I did not feel it was so good. In film, cinematography or music are just story telling tools, a means to an end, rather than an end in themselves.

You obviously want your audience to experience a "touching", "captivating", "heart-breaking" and "sometimes disturbing" short but your choice of music removes the audience from experiencing any of these feelings except possibly "sometimes disturbing". The choice of music also did not aid pace or create an "unexpected thrill", it just sounds inappropriate because it does not aid the telling of the story, rather it hinders the telling of the story.

It has nothing to do with whether or not I personally like distorted sounds, it is entirely about how your choice of music will affect an audience's emotional response. It seems to me that you have chosen music you personally like rather than considering what that music communicates to your intended audience.

My apologies if this criticism sounds overly harsh, it's not intended to, it's only intended to hopefully provide some useful feedback.

G
 
Thanks for being so bluntly honest. And thankfully this is not my film :) Nor have I anything to do with it.
I just found the film and really liked it, so I'm just saying my opinion. And by the number of views, likes and comments it seems like many other like it too. Whichever type of music you choose you will always get people that won't like it, for me it caught my attention and made me sink deeper into my seat to watch the short with joy.

I see it as a fun experiment, worked for some, guess not for others

peace
 
AudioPostExpert said:
As a cinematography exercise with added music, your short is good. As an actual film though I did not feel it was so good. In film, cinematography or music are just story telling tools, a means to an end, rather than an end in themselves.

You obviously want your audience to experience a "touching", "captivating", "heart-breaking" and "sometimes disturbing" short but your choice of music removes the audience from experiencing any of these feelings except possibly "sometimes disturbing". The choice of music also did not aid pace or create an "unexpected thrill", it just sounds inappropriate because it does not aid the telling of the story, rather it hinders the telling of the story.

It has nothing to do with whether or not I personally like distorted sounds, it is entirely about how your choice of music will affect an audience's emotional response. It seems to me that you have chosen music you personally like rather than considering what that music communicates to your intended audience.

My apologies if this criticism sounds overly harsh, it's not intended to, it's only intended to hopefully provide some useful feedback.

G
Click to expand...

Hi,
Thank you for you honest review.
My name is Rui Pilão and I directed and produced that short film. This was my first film, before I even went to film school. I'm not telling you this just to make an excuse because I'm very proud of what my crew and I have done. We had no budget, this was filmed in 3 days with only natural light and we only had one lense 50mm 1.4...the dolly was made by me and cost 12 euros, I used a closet door to do the base, and the crane shoot was done with an excavator...but yeah your right, what counts it's the final product! But I'm going to tell you why I've chosen that soundtrack and not the typical sad and cry inducing kinda songs that all housewives love. I grew up in a small town, and next to that town there are a lot of villages. Young people go away to find jobs in the main cities and they leave the old people behind, forgotten!I myself had to go away too, but I didn't forget my roots. I used that soundtrack because at the time I was angry, angry with the way my government only invests money in the capital, with the way those old people carry the history and traditions of my country and they are slowly dying, and by doing so, all that history and traditions dies with them!My country is rotting from the inside and nobody cares!So yeah, the soundtrack sounds harsh and confusing, because I wanted the people from the cities to feel bad, to feel confused, to feel uncomfortable!This was my voice has a director, I wasn't paid to do it, I didn't want to be loved by it, I wanted to share a state of mind and make a statement!That I'm here now and have a vision, an opinion! Thank you once again for your opinion, don't get me wrong, I understood what you said and I'm learning, I will do things better.

Also thank you navmachine for you post and nice words.
But the best thanks is going to mluca for sharing my work.

All the best!
 
For your first attempt you should feel proud of yourself and your crew! You accomplished a great deal with very limited resources.

RuiPilao said:
I used that soundtrack because at the time I was angry, angry with the way my government only invests money in the capital, with the way those old people carry the history and traditions of my country and they are slowly dying, and by doing so, all that history and traditions dies with them!My country is rotting from the inside and nobody cares!So yeah, the soundtrack sounds harsh and confusing, because I wanted the people from the cities to feel bad, to feel confused, to feel uncomfortable!This was my voice has a director, I wasn't paid to do it, I didn't want to be loved by it, I wanted to share a state of mind and make a statement!That I'm here now and have a vision, an opinion!
Click to expand...

I understand now why you chose that music. However, I still feel it was a poor choice because it does not communicate your anger or why you are angry, neither does it make the audience feel bad or even confused. It just sounds like a mistake, which is obviously not the statement you were trying to make! I'm not sure if it would have been possible to communicate the statement you were trying to make purely from the juxtaposition of a musical style which conflicts with the visual images. Using a musical style which conflicts with the visuals can be a powerful story telling tool but has to be used very carefully if it's not to be interpreted as a filmmaking mistake. In this particular case your choice of musical style needed some additional explanation or support from the visual images and maybe also from the sound design.

I'm not trying to belittle your short, just provide some constructive criticism for your consideration.

G
 
I believe the underlying concept here is the purpose of creating art; either for the artist or the audience, or both.

I have struggled with this topic for some time, attempting to find a balance between the two. On one hand, we are artists and have a vision and creative impulse and make creative decisions from our vision and impulse. But often times, our creative impulse does not communicate to others what it communicated to us. When I was first starting out, I had the inclination to say, "Well, I don't care if they get it. It's their fault." But as I let go and became more receptive to feedback, I realized that I wanted my work to communicate ideas more effectively to an audience. However, I still want to follow my own impulse. It's a difficult balance that I really have no grasp of, and I'm not saying that one way is better than the other, it's up to the artist to decide how they deal with it. :)

-Matt
 
Hmm, great topic! I'm loving the conversation this short has sparked

I think that if the music were to have the effect that Rui Palao had wanted, then the pacing should have been even more exaggeratedly slow. Maybe then, the choice would have been more apparent and blunt rather than coming across as a mistake...But I'm not positive.

The traditional ideas definitely came across well, but I think (again) could have been furthered with simpler camera work. Though the dollies, crane shot, and very cool coffin dragging shot, all add to making the film look impressive and professional, I think the tone and theme would have been benefitted by simpler (traditional?) camera work, keeping it on a tripod would have allowed the cinematography to help tell the story and strengthen the theme.

At the same time, I think the story could have been told in a short amount of time. Though the slow pacing was for a good reason, I would have been more captivated by a 8 min short than a 12 min short. And the pacing still wouldn't need to change. At points, the story did drag a bit.

Few other things:

I noticed he had a picture of himself above the grave...why not his wife? She was introduced and used as a storytelling mechanism for a reason, and I think that final shot and final line would have been more emotionally powerful if he had taken his wife's picture to the grave with him rather than a picture of a younger him...

The dog? I was confused about him for the whole thing. He was just there, but never for a reason. Was that to serve the setting? Or? That left me confused. Not a big deal by any means, but when picking apart the short, it left me wondering

However, so many beautiful shots, well done. And for a first short, wow, again, nice work! Clearly the musician was talented and I did love the music as a standalone element!
4/5, great work!
 
navmachine said:
I loved: The mood and tone. The acting. The old man is stellar!! The footage is fantastic too.
I liked: The pacing it felt like a slow progression into the grave, like a grandfather taking a long time to tell you a story. It had emotion.
I would change: The MUSIC!!! It completely threw me out of the experience. Watching the film on mute was a definite improvement. I didn't understand the decision to have modern electric guitars and drum beats when we're slowly watching an old man put himself into a grave.
Great work though overall!
-Matt
http://www.voiceofthevespers.com
Click to expand...

for your first attempt great job man, looking forward to see more
 
AudioPostExpert I understand your point of view. Maybe I have made some mistakes because I'm still learning but what someone might think is a mistake, another can interpret it as art :) But like I've said, I do understand you and welcome constructive criticism. That is the way to become better! Thank you for that!

navmachine Yes, it is a struggle to do that. But I've never tried to do art, and if I did, it wasn't in a selfish way, I wanted to tell a story and make the audience relate to the subject. I will always try to think about the audience during all the process of creating a film. I think in a way I owe it to those who go to a screening or watch it in the internet. We as directors need to lure the audience and find ways to make them understand, I don't think it's their fault. But some people are more receptive and can understand the more subtle symbols you use to help tell the story. Did I make sense?sorry if I don't make myself more understandable, this is not my main language :)

samwagner1000 I wanted to tell a story in a neorialist way but with a more modern approach. The use of that camera work was more of a bold way, in my opinion, to captivate the audience, give the professional look you talked about to try to hide the fact it was a no budget film and amateur. But at the same time the camera work was planed to have a relevance to the story in a way that made the audience fell closer to the character and his reality. Or at least that was what I was looking for. I agree that I could have shortened it a bit more, but believe it that I had way more shots, cool ones, that I had to trow away in order to make it 12 minutes. You said 8 min and you have a valid opinion but 12 is good because it leaves you time to really think about the subject, and to "suffer" with the character. Regarding the picture on the grave, he uses his own because in Portugal usually they put the picture of the deceased on the tombstone. The dog is not only his last companion, it is more than that, did you noticed that the man calls him but after that it's like it is the man following the dog?and at the end even the dog abandons the old man. All that had a meaning but I've already told too much lol Thank you for you comment, I appreciate it!

dfuture Thank you! My next short is almost completed. It is also no budget and I tried to explore other genre, suspense, it's a psychologic thriller. I'm going to try and send it to a few film festivals. I still haven't researched the ones outside my country that best suit that genre of film. If any of you know some that allow for international shorts I would appreciate it.
 
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